The following relates generally to wireless communication, and more specifically to synchronization and paging channel design for wireless communications.
Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, (e.g., a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, or a New Radio (NR) system). A wireless multiple-access communications system may include a number of base stations or access network nodes, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple communication devices, which may be otherwise known as user equipment (UE).
Some wireless systems may enable communication between a base station and a UE over different radio frequency spectrum bands (e.g., shared radio frequency spectrum bands, licensed radio frequency spectrum bands, or unlicensed radio frequency spectrum bands). When initially performing cell acquisition, or when identifying one or more neighbor cells when connected with a serving cell, a UE may identify one or more discovery reference signal (DRS) transmissions from a base station. DRS transmission may include a primary synchronization signal (PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), a physical broadcast channel (PBCH), etc. Using the DRS transmissions may allow the UE to synchronize and communicate with the base station.
When operating over a shared radio frequency spectrum, transmitters may have limitations on the use of the spectrum and may or may not be transmitting when a UE may be trying to locate a synchronization signal. Such limitations may result in additional delays during a cell acquisition procedure. Long cell acquisition times may decrease device performance, increase power consumption, and in low signal to noise ratio (SNR) environments, communication between the mobile device and the base station may be deleteriously affected. Improved techniques for cell acquisition in such scenarios may thus be desired.